Oregon’s Festival of Democracy

Check it out, one of the most wonderful weeks of truly engaging and honestly authentic community advocates are being brought together by the Bus Project for a damn fun, critically real and pretty inspirational Festival of Democracy.  Something for everyone, from newbies looking to educate themselves about the upcoming elections to seasoned vets seeking something new in their toolbox.  Rebooting Democracy runs through Sunday April 22nd.

I’ll be a part of Sunday’s workshop The Equity Equation: Working to Solve Oregon’s Racial Disparities, along with Kalpana Krishnamurthy of Western States Center and the Oregon Racial Equity Report Card.  Shout out to all the great APANO volunteers helping out, and the continued effort of the organizers to prioritize the issues of communities of color and communities experiencing inequities.

Push to Keep GA in Arizona

I continue to oppose having the regular general business of the UUA in Phoenix.  I strongly support re-investing the $600,000 in minimum reservation fees for the 2012 to be directed to a UUA response to SB 1070.  I wonder if we are trying to be cheap by insisting we can “do it all” by having GA and public witness?  Do we undermine the larger movement by making these rationalizations but really what we’re concerned about is money?

Lots of discussions are being generated by UUA President Peter Morales issuing a call for GA continue to be held in Phoenix in 2012.  Check out this discussion thread by Rev. Michael Tino.

UU Allies for Racial Equity(ARE) Endorses Arizona Boycott

UU Allies for Racial Equity(ARE) Endorses Arizona Boycott

May 2010

With other people of faith and concerned citizens across the country, we are disappointed and deeply troubled by the passage of recent anti-immigrant legislation in the state of Arizona.  We fear that this legislation will ultimately result in marginalization of immigrants, both documented and undocumented.   Harassment of Latinos/Latinas/Hispanics and people of color perceived as immigrants because of their race or ethnicity will be an inevitable consequence of any attempts at enforcement.   Our nation has made significant progress toward racial equity in the last fifty years.  This new law is a shameful step backwards, once again inscribing racism in the legal system and thereby in the institutions required to comply with the legal system.

Immediately upon passage of the new Arizona law, the Rev. Peter Morales, president of our Unitarian Universalist Association, issued a statement in which he wrote: We cannot stand by while those charged to protect us instead subject us to racial profiling, unwarranted searches, and unjust arrests. We must not let fear and ignorance cause our neighbors to be treated as lesser beings. We must not allow this law to violate our national constitution or America’s moral conscience.”  We are grateful for the leadership of Rev. Morales and for the leadership of our Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees who quickly convened a special meeting to consider whether we should rescind our commitment to hold our 2012 General Assembly in Phoenix.  After listening to many voices and considering a spectrum of protest strategies, the board voted to present a business resolution before the delegates to our annual General Assembly this June in Minneapolis, MN asking us to participate in a widespread economic boycott of Arizona.  We encourage you to read the full text of the board’s resolution which can be found at http://www.uua.org/aboutus/governance/boardtrustees/index.shtml.

We know that some in our association are advocating alternative protest strategies, but our philosophy of accountability calls us to carefully consider requests for allied participation from Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM) and from the Latino/a Unitarian Universalist Networking Association (LUUNA).  In doing so, we have discovered that DRUUMM and LUUNA leaders have aligned themselves with the leadership of several prominent national civil and immigrants rights organizations.  With hope and faith that a strong, united voice of protest will help overturn this law, and in solidarity with LUUNA and with DRUUMM, we affirm our support of an economic boycott of Arizona and encourage delegates to our General Assembly to vote in favor of the business resolution presented by our board of trustees.

UU Allies for Racial Equity (ARE) Steering Committee

Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo, President

Rev. Michael Tino, Vice-President

Ken Wagner, Treasurer/Stewardship Coordinator

Sharon Blevins, Membership Chair

Rev. Bill Gardiner, Education Team Co-Chair

Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer, Education Team Co-Chair

Rev. James Hobart, Connections Team Co-Chair

UU Solidarity with Arizona

I’m renaming my blog UU Solidarity with Arizona in an effort to bring attention to the harms SB 1070 is perpetuating upon the people of Arizona and the Unitarian Universalist response.  The racism, profiling, and xenophobic anti-immigrant principles guiding Arizona’s public policy is the wrong direction for our country, and the wrong direction for Unitarian Universalism to endorse.  Honestly I’m equal parts pit-of-my-stomach angry, scared for my family, and anxious about what this justice issue means for my Unitarian Universalist faith.

Quick RJ Look at Primary Election for Mult Co Seat #2

Update 3/27/2010 – I met face-to-face with Roberta Phillip last week, comments below.

A quick political observation and a few racial justice related comments.

The race for Multnomah County Seat #2 covering most of N/NE Portland is going to be hot, multicultural, and will almost certainly result in a run-off.  For folks of color, immigrants and refugees, this represents one of the few elected seats where our communities have enough political power to elect someone in relationship with our growing diverse populations.  The seat has been held by a progressive white guy Jeff Cogen who gets rave reviews for everything from his policy making to his hiring of Karol Collymore.  Previously Serena Cruz held the seat, who won it through serious grassroots organizing (remember Cruz Points anyone?) in a significant community development for the Latino Community.  Serena left the commission to go into building contracting with her husband, scion of megabuilder Walsh Construction.

The political dominoes that fell when Governor Kulongoski appointed Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler to the State Treasurer post upon Ben Westlunds’ death has been intense.  Jeff Cogen is now running for Multnomah County Chair, with hefty support from former Chair Bev Stein and former US Senate candidate Steve Novik.  With Cogen’s commission seat #2 now open, the list of folks who are running is impressive.  Here are a few quick hits on a few candidates:

• Karol Collymore is highly praised for her work as a Cogen aide, and her Democratic party and women’s organizing in New Mexico and Oregon.  She was a finalist for the House 43 and Senate 22 appointments.   She is African-American, involved in lots of cool GOTV activities, and is a regular contributor to BlueOregon.com and even talks about racial justice issues.
• Chuck Currie is a legendary housing and homeless activist, who worked closely with City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury.  He is now a UCC minister (same year as me!), family man with twins, and moved from Westside to Eastside to settle down around Parkrose.  Currie has a fairly famous civic and religious blog.  He is a white guy who has addressed racial justice concerns and whiteness.
• Gary Hansen is a former commissioner running again for office.   Older white guy who I have no idea of his racial politics, but I’m sure is really nice and formidable because of his past experience.
• Roberta Phillip who recently left the Crittendon Foundation and serves as Board Chair of Pangea Project, became more widely known when a group of African American civic leaders endorsed her over Joann Bowman and Chip Shields for the open Senate 22 seat last year.  Seems relatively unknown within communities of color and no idea about her racial justice perspective. UPDATE 3/27/2010: Had a really nice tea with Roberta, learned more of her background and work here in Portland, including: 1) Creating Mentor Program at POIC that lives on with over 70 youth; 2) Community relations and interest in increasing accountability with communities of color with Chair Wheeler; 3) Long-term commitment to the future of Oregon.  She is an immigrant from Trinidad, grew up in NYC, and really just a thoughtful focused person.
• Irma Linda Castillo I’ve never heard of, at least I don’t think, is a 14 year Multnomah County worker who cites diversity training in her filing statement.  Educated in California.  Would love to hear from her!
• Maria Rubio used to work for Mayor Tom Potter on public safety issues among other things.  Is mother to new Latino Network Executive Director Carmen Rubio, and I think was even in the Emerge Oregon program for women candidates, although I could be wrong.  I saw her at a recent Office of Multicultural Health legislative forum, and she indicated she has been doing consulting since Sam Adams took office.  I imagine her analysis is sharp given what I know and love of Carmen’s vision and work.

There are several other candidates who I don’t know who may be amazing, although I think the general election will be two folks from this list.

Police Related Racial Incidents

The more I’ve been back in the community, engaged in multiracial organizing and leadership development, the more I hear and experience the violent and racialized encounters with police, not just in Portland, but Eugene, Corvallis, Salem, and beyond.  It one of the hard realities of white supremacy on people of color – the violence and control that breeds an environment of low-intensity conflict, hurt and suffering.  Some of it is clearly a crisis response to criminal behavior.  Yet when one does a full accounting over any period of time, race is ultimately a deciding factor.  (kudos to Maxine Bernstein who is doing excellent reporting from the Oregonian)

• The deep tragedy of an elder brother shot in the back by police, dead, unarmed, in the midst of emotional distress over the death earlier in the day of his younger brother [funeral note].  While his criminal background may justify unwanted police attention and aggression, the facts as they’ve been reported appear to point again to a combination of poor police training, a need for better competency in cross-cultural crisis management, and protocols that don’t let a bleeding victim of a police gunshot to be left on the road for 23 minutes.
• PCC Women’s Basketball player was essentially assaulted by police around the corner from our house.
• Eugene police tasered a  University of Oregon student, recently arrived from China, in his bedroom, in his apartment.  [APANO response]  [good summary from local API activist]

UU Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy

This is exactly what I talked about in my MDIV thesis:

When it comes to our own racial and cultural identity, our policy seems to be “don’t ask, don’t tell.” I find this both troubling and puzzling in light of our commitment seventeen years ago to create a “racially diverse and multicultural Unitarian Universalism.”

From Paul Rasor’s Berry Street Lecture 2009

Without data, we can’t address equity, and thus we end up speculating and working from poor assumption.  I was at GA but missed this presentation, and alas only now took the time to read it.  It is really quite fascinating, and I agree (and unfortunately disagree in part with the response from Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt …”But in the end, this is not, and never will be, a numbers game”) that it is helpful to understand our context through census numbers.  I’d write more, but it is midnight.

Adoptee Questions

There are certain questions every adoptee I’ve known, including myself, seems to ask at some point in their life.

It was not until she was in her 30s that she began to explore her Korean heritage. One night, after going out to celebrate with her husband at the time, she says she broke down and began crying uncontrollably.

“I remember sitting there thinking, where is my mother? Why did she leave me? Why couldn’t she struggle to keep me?” she said. “That was the beginning of my journey to find out who I am.”

NY Times Article Adopted From Korea

Discussing Transracial Adoption

Adoption Mosaic, a new advocacy and education organization based in Portland, OR, continues to flourish under the able leadership of co-founder Astrid Dabbeni.  Unique within the adoption world as a non-adoption provider non-profit that works extensively with families, adoptees, and prospective parents with a racial justice framework, I’ve had the honor of speaking several times as part of their ongoing workshops on transracial adoption.

There is a new Adoption Mosaic Blog where you can discuss the issues further.  Check it out!

A Year Away

Last month I celebrated my first full year away from the UUA. It was important to stay out of the fray after my departure after 10 years of organizing and ministry with youth and young adults. The transition was made even more profound when my 36th birthday came around! No longer am I a young adult. In the ministry there is a lot of health conversation about the importance of giving space to new leadership when we transition. It feels like that happened for me, as I had maybe one or two conversations about young adult and campus ministry in the whole year, and only at social events. There is still some sadness that after a decade of intense action and reflection with the youth and young adult generation, my generation at the time, that the experience and learnings are stored away like an Indiana Jones find. Nonetheless, given my collective organizing principles, I believe that the best leadership will come from young adults themselves. A new generation of empowered, visionary, radically inclusive and spiritually alive youth and young adults are leading already.

I have a lot of love and powerful memories from my 10 years of work. Through all the ups and downs of funding, part-time, leadership transitions, etc, that period in my life both professionally and personally was very meaningful. With an amazing group of dedicated activists, together we built an effective and creative continental network of Unitarian Universalists. We were able to develop on so many levels, not only organizationally, but spiritually. Our basic theology and philosophy of the ministry evolved…process theology and practice at work.

Now that a year is passed, I’m paying attention to only one of the ministries that I left, the Groundwork Initiative. This was a joint collaboration of DRUUMM, YRUU, C*UUYAN and the UUA that was administratively managed by the UUA and led at least ideally by the collective of youth, young adult and mentor anti-oppression/anti-racism trainer-facilitators who went through a 4 day train the trainers. Our work was, and unfortunately still is on the cutting edge. I am pleased to see the integration of so many of the Groundwork participants in our UU congregations, in the organizations we sought to partner and be accountable with including the Catalyst Project (formerly Challenging White Supremacy), People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Asian American Resource Workshop, Western States Center, and Crossroads Ministry. There is a Groundwork connected member, apprentice or mentor in each of these organizations at some level. This is amazing!